Perched
on the sheer edge of a cliff that juts out into the Arabian Sea like
some fairytale castle, is Raj Bhavan, the residence of Goas
Governor. In Portuguese days this house was occupied by the Viceroy
and it is thus designed and equipped for the pomp and circumstance of
an imperial way of life. It also commands a spectacular view of a
great arc of Goas coastland. From its rear windows you can see
the mouths of both of Goas major rivers, the Mandovi and the
Zuari.

As
rivers go, theyre small. Neither is quite hundred miles long.
But in Goa, which itself is quite a small state, theyre fully
up to scale: what the Danube and Rhine are to central Europe or
indeed what the Ganga and Yamuna are to Uttar Pradesh.

To
be sure that there are half a dozen other rivers in Goa, and
countless watercourses which during the three monsoon months swell
into roaring torrents. But these two rivers, the Mandovi and the
Zuari, have had a special role in shaping Goas history.

In
Goas turbulent history, there are several references to some
invading force or the other having failed in its attempts to ford the
Banastari creek. That creek acts as an effective moat and it is a
natural obstacle created by these two rivers collaborating, as it
were, to carve out a channel which joins their waters while they are
still several miles away from the coast.

The
Banastari creek has thus transformed a section of coastland Goa into
an impregnable island. That island is called Tiswadi, or the land of
thirty villages. It was this Tiswadi island which in medieval times
became rich and prosperous mainly because it also contained the port
of Govapuri which became a vigorous centre of trade between the east
and the west, an alternative to the horrendously more hazardous Silk
Route of Central Asia.

In
ancient times, Govapuri was as well known as, say, Jerusalem and
Rome. According to our Skandapurana which is one of the
several volumes of Hindu mythological lore, Govapuri was not only a
prosperous city on Indias west coast, but a centre of learning
than which there is no holier place. And the Greek
geographer, Ptolemy, who lived in the second century of the Christian
era, actually mentions it by a shortened name which could not have
been in use then: `Gova.

Govapuris
fabled wealth made it a prize target for seizure by the warlords who,
from the 12th century onward, had set themselves up as Sultans of one
dynasty or the other over much of continental India. The sultans, no
matter how keenly they wished to swallow up Goa, were deterred if not
defeated by Goas natural inaccessibility. One of these sultans
who made a determined effort to take Tiswadi, Mohammad Gawan of
Bidar, has described Govapuri as the envy of all other Indian
ports and a copy of the cistern of plenty.

The
irony was that while the Mandovi and Zuari between them made Goa, or
at least Tiswadi, virtually impregnable from a landward invasion,
because of their easy navigability to seagoing ships, they also made
it vulnerable to a seaborne expedition.

And
that was how Tiswadi came to be conquered, by a seaborne expedition
sent by a Sultan of Delhi whose very name spelt terror: Mohammad Bin
Tughluq. It sailed from a port in Kathiawad, in a fleet of
fifty-seven ships in the mid thirteen-forties. Three days later, they
had sailed into the Zuaris channel. The aim of the expedition
was simple: to bring back as much plunder as could be loaded on the
ships; to put to death all able-bodied men except the artisans who
were to be taken away as slaves. The women were selectively chosen as
prizes of war, to serve the lust of the conquerors or as menial
servants. And above all, to destroy all the idols and the places of
worship of the kaiffirs.

Goas
ordeals had begun.

Of
the Goa of the Kadambas, nothing now remains in coastal Goa other
than bits and pieces of temple statuary. Govapuri, the pride and
boast of the Kadambas, just disintegrated and over the centuries
vanished altogether. Pandits who have looked for its site will tell
you that it sprawled along the right bank of the Zuari river and that
a village called Goa Velha once formed a suburb of Govapuri.

Maybe,
maybe not. What is true is that when, more than a century and a half
later, the Portuguese took over Goa, all traces of a city called
Govapuri had already vanished. It was as though the river Zuari,
having served as the principal artery of trade for centuries, had
decided to retire and pass on its role to the Mandovi. The same silt
that came down in ever increasing amounts every year to make its
channel too shallow for seagoing ships was also steadily and surely
burying Govapuri; imperceptibly, no more than a few inches every
year, but within a hundred years, the job was complete. The Zuari had
not only decided to put itself out of business, it had actually
swallowed up the city it had nourished.

From
Goas airport at Dabolim, the road into the mainland skirts the
left bank of the Zuari. In the tidal parts it is one unbroken clutter
of gaunt warehouses or noisy workshops for building or repairing
iron-ore barges. True, now and then there are glimpses of vaguely
religious ruins on the other bank, but this stretch of Zuari has been
overtaken by commerce. Then after passing the town of Cortalim, the
river makes a gentle sweep to the right and the outlook suddenly
changes. From here to Loutolim it is the Goa of Mario Mirandas
exuberant drawings. This is the land of batkars, landed
gentry, the home of Sossegado which means take it easy
but it also means the Goan way of doing things.

A
chain of low hills flank the river and their slopes are covered with
plantations of Goas own fruit trees, the Jack, the Malcorado
and Cashew. Through their foliage you glimpse the batkar
houses, all facing the river. Most are built of chira, the red
laterite stone that is special to the west coast.

The
main feature of all these bunga-lows is a flight of steps leading to
a porch which is lined on both sides with stone benches facing one
another. Here the family members sit, dressed in vests and
knee-length pyjamas and gossip as they munch sun-dried cashew nuts
and sip vintage feni which is here prized over VSOP brandy.
Indeed each batkar either has his own backyard still, or
shares one with a few friends. Each years product is stored
away in earthenware vessels called caussos in cool underground
cellars and allowed to age. What theyre drinking today may well
be from a causso that was first filled twenty years ago.

This
is the Goa of the expatriate Goans nostalgia, of mando
singsongs by moonlight, of sorpotel made with coconut-pulp gravy and
the sannas that go with it fluffier because they have been
leavened with home-made palm toddy. Here the plump, doe-eyed matrons
spend hours before smoking wood fires because bebinca cannot
be hurried. It is presented for Sunday lunch, an artistic creation of
paper-thin brown and yellow layers thick as a loaf of bread.

This
stretch of Salcette is surely the heart of Christianized Goa and, who
knows, possibly its soul too.

Here
the past lingers and time moves in slow motion, as does the Zuari,
its other bank lined with rice paddies and, behind them, coconut
palms. And beyond those palms is Hindu Goa.

In
the Konkani language, the other side of the river is polttodi.
It is a word charged with emotional content. Polttodi is Hindu
Goa, the sanctuary of transplanted deities, of temple dancers; of
caste marks and tika and chains of flower around hair buns.
Polttodi is Bakibab Borkars Goa just as much as Salcette
is Mario Mirandas. Both have portrayed their images: Mario in
drawings, Borkar in his poetry; poetry which, over the years, is
quoted in everyday conversation in both Konkani and Marathi.

That
word, polttodi, the other bank. To the Goans it holds other
meanings too: the promised land, some unattainable yearning. It has
spawned Goas own theme song, Hanv saiba polttodi vetam 
Sir, I want to go to the other side. It tugs at the
heartstrings of all Goans no matter where they live, whether male or
female, whether they go to a temple or church or dont believe
in God at all.

But
then if the Zuari accurately reflects the Sossegado or
laidback lifestyle of Salcette, it has not been so placid, or indeed
so well behaved in the past, but has been known to be capricious not
only in pre-Portuguese days when it swallowed up Govapuri, but in
more recent times: the early years of Portuguese rule. In the
sixteenth century it washed the steps of the Santana church (which
incidentally, is one of Goas must-see monuments). Nowadays you
cannot even see the river from the church.

That
bit of fractiousness apart, the Zuari has gone into quiet retirement.
It had ceased to be the channel of entry for ships coming to Western
India even before Alfonso de Albuquerques arrival. It was its
sister river, the Mandovi, that had taken over the role. A small
village called Ela on its banks, about ten miles upriver from its
mouth, had been developed into a port town. It was this village that
the Portuguese took to calling Goa and, later still, Velha Goa.

It
was the Mandovi, then, that brought fame and fortune to Goa. Its
harbour became the main entrepot on Indias west coast for ships
from foreign lands. Barely sixty years later, and it was already
being spoken of as being the equal of Lisbon itself. Travellers have
described it in ecstatic terms, as a bustling centre of trade with
spacious squares, extensive parks, ornate fountains, elegant private
villas but, above all, magnificent churches.

Goas
churches have been the most ambitious Portuguese monuments. After
all, the impulse that fuelled Portugals empire-building drive
was their evangelical fervour, bordering on fanaticism. And the
competitive frenzy of the various orders of the Catholic Church gave
Velha Goa its noblest monuments.

Unfortunately,
Goas prosperity did not last long. A hundred years later it
fell into rapid decline. But during that interregnum of burgeoning
prosperity, around the year 1600, Goa was being called The Rome
of the Orient and even Goa Dourada, Golden Goa.

A
handsome book with that very title Golden Goa published
by Marg has a double-spread picture of Velha Goa at around
this time. It shows the stretch of the Mandovi beyond Raibandar, and
you can make out some of the landmark structures: St. Augustines
Church, for instance, with its twin towers which once served as a
viewing stand for Goas Viceroys for watching the Auto
de fe, the ceremonious burning alive of heretics.

At
the centre of the picture is Velha Goa in full glory, positively
crammed with buildings. Of them only the few churches and religious
buildings have survived, neglected and mouldering. But of the shops
and warehouses, the mansions of the merchants, not a trace. Goa
Dourada had vanished. If it were not for the few structures that can
be identified, this portrait of it drawn from life with such exacting
detail might be thought to be an imaginary depiction.

As
a matter of fact Goas period of prosperity did not last for
even a hundred years. By the end of the seventeenth century, its
owners had not only abandoned it but eviscerated it and cannibalized
it for building material to be reused for their new houses at another
location. In 1846 the great adventurer and explorer, Sir Richard
Burton, stopped over in Goa for a few days while on a journey further
south. In between his other preoccupations (such as an attempt to
abduct a black-eyed and rose-lipped young nun from the
Convent of St. Augustine) he dutifully performed the tourists
round of Velha Goa. He writes:

Churches
and monasteries excepted, this was a dead city. Everything that met
the eye teemed with melancholy; the very rustle of the breeze a dirge
for the departed grandeur.

His
journey to Velha Goa was made by hired rowboat. In fact he had used
the same boat to take himself to the St. Augustines Convent in
the dead of night in his bid to carry away the pretty nun. His
attendants did force their way in and seized a nun but she was the
wrong woman and they had to let her go. Till well into the early
twentieth century Velha Goa had to be approached by boat. Like all
riverside cities the grandest buildings faced the river; in Goa, in
the old days, they were meant to be visited from the riverside; the
maze of mean lanes that may have provided access to servants and
tradesmen are now pressed into service as thoroughfares.

Granting
that the Velha Goa of Portuguese days is gone, whatever there is
still left to see is best from the river which at least has not
changed much. And nowadays a motorboat will take you there in less
than an hour.

Perhaps
the one part of Portuguese Goa that has not changed beyond
recognition is the island of Diwar. You see it to your left, across
the water, a low hill with, at its highest point, a gaunt white
structure that is somehow in complete harmony in its setting: the
Church of Piedade or Our Lady of Compassion. A gleaming white edifice
against the sky, calling attention to itself in a role similar to
that of the Statue of Liberty across the port of New York, as a
marker of a long journeys end, of an arrival at a destination.

But
if the Piedade church serves as an enduring memorial of Portuguese
rule over Goa, surely, the Tambdi Surla temple of Mahadeva stands as
a marker for the ancient rulers of Goa, the Kadamba dynasty. This
temple represents some sort of a miracle too, in that it has
survived, almost intact, the temple-destroying fury of two waves of
conquerors.

Tambdi
Surla is not for the bread-and-butter tourist. For one thing, a trip
to it from coastal Goa even by taxi needs the best part of a day.
Nonetheless, it is what the Pyramids are to Egypt or the Great Wall
to China  positively the most important monument of Goa. It has
been around for close on a thousand years, yet no one even in Goa so
much as knew about it till it was discovered by a young
Goan surveyor, Anant Dhume, in 1935.

It
is not easy to write about the impact of the Tambdi Surla temple as
it suddenly breaks into view without resorting to superlatives.
Christopher Turner in his guidebook to Goa is struck by its balance
of strength and delicacy and superb craftsmanship. But he also
calls it the most thrilling building in Goa, dramatic,
romantic and I myself have likened the experience to walking
into a cultural ambush.

Anyhow,
a few hundred yards beyond that frisky young river called Ragoda, the
jungle opens up with startling suddenness to a stone temple on the
only level patch of ground circled by deep valleys and, in the far
distance, fortified by towering mountain peaks and ridges. The
spectacle is stunning, with nothing that is out of balance to detract
from your sense of overpowering wonderment.